Exchange of signalling messages in an internet protocol communications network between entities applying object oriented processing of signalling messages

ABSTRACT

Signalling messages in an Internet Protocol, IP, communications network comprising a chain of at least two entities ( 21; 23; 29 ) applying object oriented processing ( 22; 28; 42 ) of signalling messages are exchanged between the at least two entities ( 21; 23; 29 ) of the IP communications network comprising object oriented based data items. Parsing and inverse parsing of text based signalling messages are effectively avoided, thereby reducing system resources and increasing processing speed of the system as a whole.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention generally relates to signalling in an InternetProtocol, IP, communications network and, more specifically, to theexchange of signalling messages in an IP communications networkcomprising a chain of at least two entities applying object orientedprocessing of signalling messages.

BACKGROUND

Internet communications networks or Internet Protocol, IP,communications networks support a variety of telecommunicationsservices, including voice, audio, video and other data communications.Data are exchanged in packets using a set of communications protocolsindependent of underlaying transport technologies.

Examples of implementations of IP communications networks are, amongstothers, Voice over IP, VoIP, networks and IP Multimedia Subsystem, IMS,communications networks.

Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP, is a general term for voice orspeech communications and multimedia communications sessions over packetswitched IP networks. Other terms frequently encountered and synonymouswith VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, Voice over broadband,VoBB, broadband telephony, and broadband phone.

Using packet switched IP networks allows for efficient allocation ofnetwork resources, as packets are routed on paths with the leastcongestion. Packet header information comprises information about thepacket's intended destination as well as information to reconstruct thedata included in the packet at a receiving entity.

The IP Multimedia Subsystem, IMS, communications network is anarchitectural framework defined by the wireless standard setting body3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP, amongst others for deliveringIP multimedia services to user terminals operating in a circuit switchedor packet switched telecommunications network, for example.

Fixed and wireless, i.e. mobile, communications such as called W-CDMA,CDMA2000, GSM, GPRS, WLAN, WiMAX, and others are supported by IMSthrough gateway servers. Dedicated IMS user equipment such as mobilephones, Personal Digital Assistants, PDAs, and other communicationequipment may directly register with an IMS communications network. TheIMS also supports roaming in other networks or countries.

IP communications networks in general and IMS communications networks inparticular typically comprise a separate content domain, in IMS alsocalled user plane, and a separate signalling domain, in IMS also calledcontrol plane. The content domain operates for the actual exchange ofmedia, for example audio, video, or data, between a calling party and acalled party, during a communications session. The signalling domain,amongst others, operates to exchange signalling or control messages inrelation to a communications session between a calling and called party,not only to establish or terminate a session but also during a sessionto provide additional services, for example. Besides the calling andcalled party other entities, such as gateway servers, media servers,voice mail servers, proxy servers, such as called Proxy-Call SessionControl Function, P-CSCF, servers and subscriber registrar Serving-CallSession Control Function, S-CSCF, servers associated with both thecalling party and the called party may be involved in a communicationsession.

The signalling protocol used in IMS communications networks is calledSession Initialisation Protocol, SIP. SIP is a standardisedapplication-layer control protocol for the exchange of signallingmessages between entities of an IMS communications network. Using SIPprovides for many advantages, for example, its scalability, itsimplementation and its support for both IP and conventional telephonecommunications.

The SIP protocol is text-based and incorporates many elements of theHyperText Transfer Protocol, HTTP, and the Simple Mail TransferProtocol, SMTP. SIP call establishment poses large requirements on SIPentity processing capacity. The text based aspects of SIP imply thatkeywords and labels within a signalling message are recognized through‘byte-by-byte’ character comparison. Headers of a SIP message have ahigh degree of flexibility in terms of their position in the SIPmessage. This means that when decoding (parsing) a SIP message, thedecoder has to read the SIP message line-by-line, until the required SIPheader is found. Keywords and labels in SIP message are generallycase-insensitive. This has the effect that for recognizing keywords andlabels, a parser has to convert each and every character, where caseinsensitivity applies, to a normalized case, such as upper case forexample. Further, the headers in SIP messages have a variable length.There is no length indicator per line of text. This implies that whenreading a line, a parser has to continue reading characters until a<carriage return><line feed>, <CR><LF>, combination is encountered.

These aspects, when using text-based signalling messages in an IPcommunications network, amongst others cause a relatively highprocessing load on the signalling processing entities in the network andconsume a substantial amount of resources within such entities forencoding and decoding of the signalling messages. Further, text basedsignalling messages are regarded as being vulnerable to eavesdropping.

Object oriented programming languages, such as but not limited to JAVA,C#, C++, dot NET, Python, Perl and Ruby, are suitable for objectoriented programming for executing operations in servers of, forexample, an IP communications network. These object oriented programminglanguages utilize object oriented based data items such as objectclasses.

In present IMS communications networks, for example, JAVA is a commonlyused object oriented programming language accommodated with acomprehensive SIP library, for applying object oriented processing ofsignalling messages by the service logic of an entity operating in thecommunications network.

Entities of an IP communications network which process received textbased signalling messages applying object oriented programming, arearranged to convert (parse) received text based signalling messages intoobject oriented based data items, for a JAVA Application ProgrammingInterface, API, to operate. The entities are also arranged toreconstruct object oriented based data items back to text basedsignalling messages (the inverse of the parsing process) for exchangingsame with a next entity of a chain of entities in an IP communicationsnetwork.

The conversion of text-based signalling messages to and from objectoriented based data items causes a high load on the entities handlingthese signalling messages. In other words, this is very resourceintensive for these entities.

Future utilization and the number of IP communications networks areexpected to grow gradually, due to, among others, the increasing demandfor IP services of users of communications devices, such as mobiletelephones and other user equipment. One of the challenges for operatorsof IP communications networks is to facilitate this increasing demandand, at the same time, maintain or improve the reliability, efficiencyand robustness of their network as a whole and the signalling domain inparticular.

SUMMARY

It is an object to provide an improved method of exchanging signallingmessages in an IP communications network.

It is another object to provide for an entity for use in an IPcommunications network supporting the improved method of exchangingsignalling messages.

It is a further object to provide for an IP communications systemcomprising at least two entities supporting the improved method ofexchanging signalling messages.

In a first aspect there is provided a method of exchanging signallingmessages in an Internet Protocol, IP, communications network, the IPcommunications network comprising a chain of at least two entitiesapplying object oriented processing of signalling messages. The methodis characterised in that signalling messages exchanged between the atleast two entities of the IP communications network comprise objectoriented based data items.

The improved method is based on the insight that if communicatingentities in a network are arranged for applying object orientedprocessing of signalling messages, utilization of resources of theseentities is reduced when signalling messages exchanged between theseentities comprise object oriented based data items. The use of resourcesof entities in the communications network is mainly reduced since theseentities do not need to convert text based signalling messages to objectoriented based signalling messages, and vice versa.

By removing both types of conversions, a significant reduction in theprocessing time of signalling messages is achieved due the absence ofthe time-consuming parsing process and the inverse of the parsingprocess, as detailed in the background section above. In particular,when an increasing amount of signalling entities applying processing ofobject oriented based data items are chained in an IP communicationsnetwork, due to the absence of multiple conversions of the signallingmessages exchanged, the improved method not only drastically improvesthe efficiency of the signalling process of the network but alsoenhances the reliability and robustness of the signalling domain andthereby the performance of the network as a whole. The decrease inresource utilization when applying the improved method leads to, amongothers, an increase in the capacity of the IP communications network.

In addition to the decrease in resource utilization, the exchange ofsignalling messages in the IP communications network using the improvedmethod becomes less vulnerable to eavesdropping of, for example, thirdparties. For third parties it is much more difficult to directly deriveuseful information from signalling messages exchanged between entitiesin the communications network comprising object oriented based dataitems as compared to text based signalling messages.

Another advantage of the improved method is that unnecessary overheadduring the exchange of signalling messages is reduced, thereby furtherimproving the efficiency of the communications network.

The chain of at least two entities applying object oriented processingof signalling messages may exist between a calling party and a calledparty, for example, as well as between a calling party and severalcalled parties, or vice versa. In other words, the chain does not needto solely comprise consecutively traversed or coupled entities between acalling party and a called party.

In general, entities in modern IP communications networks are arrangedto apply modern Object Oriented, OO, programming languages such as forexample JAVA, C++, C#, dot NET, Python, Perl, Ruby and the like forhandling signalling messages. The improved method is applicable for useby entities applying such object oriented languages for the processingof signalling messages.

In a further aspect of the improved method, the object class based dataitems are one of an OO programming language.

JAVA is a commonly used object oriented programming language forentities in IMS communications networks processing SIP signallingmessages. Accordingly, in IMS communications networks, the improvedmethod is, among others, applicable to entities applying JAVAprocessing. Within an IMS communications network, the improved method ofexchanging signalling messages is not only applicable to SIP but mayalso be applied to Diameter signalling messages. Diameter signallingmessages are used between servers in the IMS communications network,such as an Interrogating-CSCF, I-CSCF, server and Home SubscriberServer, HSS, during call establishment and, when the called party, i.e.the destination subscriber, is currently not registered, between theS-CSCF server and the HSS server.

It will be appreciated that the improved method may also be used forother signalling protocols that are based on similar principles, such asHypertext Transfer Protocol, HTTP, and the Real Time Streaming Protocol,RTSP. Further, the signalling messages may be compressed using anycompressing technique for efficient transportation of the signallingmessages.

In another aspect the object oriented based data items are serialised byan entity of the chain for exchanging serialised object oriented baseddata items between entities of the chain.

Serialising object oriented based data items comprises converting a datastructure, for example an object class, into a sequence of bits so thatthe transport of object oriented based data items is simplified. Thisprocess of serialising a data structure is also often referred to asdeflating or marshalling a data structure.

In the receiving entity, according to another aspect, the received bitsequence is de-serialised for applying object oriented processing of theobject oriented based data items.

In a further aspect an instance of the signalling messages exchangedbetween the at least two entities comprises a designation stringindicating that the instance comprises serialised object oriented baseddata items. By interpreting the designation string, a receiving entitydetermines that the object oriented based data items, such as a set ofJAVA object classes, is encoded in binary, serialised form, such that ade-serialising process may be started for processing of the signallingmessage. The designation string may be incorporated, for example, in theheader of signalling message exchanged between entities of the IPcommunications network.

In another aspect with exchanging the signalling messages the entitiesexchange a parameter indicating whether an entity of the chain isarranged for exchanging object oriented based data items. The parametermay be exchanged in any of a request and response signalling message,for example.

From this parameter, entities gain knowledge whether the signallingmessage to a subsequent entity has to be exchanged as a regular textbased message or as a message comprising object oriented based dataitems according to the improved method. Based on this indication, anentity in the IP communications network may apply conversion of the textbased message to object oriented based data items or vice versa.

In a further aspect, prior to exchanging signalling messages, theentities of the IP communications network exchange a parameterindicating whether an entity of the chain is arranged for exchangingobject oriented based data items.

Here, it is not necessary to include such a parameter in, for example,the header of every signalling message exchanged between entities in theIP communications network. By determining beforehand which entities arecapable of receiving object oriented based data items, signallingoverhead is decreased.

Based on this parameter, an entity of the chain may directly forwardsignalling messages according to the improved method knowing that thereceiving entity is able to process same. In an IMS communicationsnetwork applying SIP signalling, for example, the parameter or thedesignation string is exchanged in at least one of a SIP Register, a SIPInvite and a SIP Response message.

In yet another aspect the parameter comprises at least one of a firstport number for exchanging signalling messages comprising object classbased items and a second port number for exchanging signalling messagesnot comprising object oriented based data items.

Dependent on the value of the parameter, i.e. the applicable portnumber, signalling messages may be routed for correctly processing sameby a receiving entity.

In a further aspect, the entities of the chain operate in an IPcommunications network supporting Voice over IP, VoIP, communications.Reference is made to the background section above concerning VoIP.

According to another object, there is provided an entity comprising asignalling module arranged for applying object oriented processing ofsignalling messages in an Internet Protocol, IP, communications network.The entity is characterised in that the signalling module is arrangedfor exchanging in the IP communications network signalling messagescomprising object oriented based data items, in accordance with theimproved method disclosed above.

In yet another aspect the entity comprises a transmission modulearranged for serialising of object oriented based data items and forde-serialising of received serialised object oriented based data items,for exchanging serialised object oriented based data items in the IPcommunications network.

In a further aspect the entity comprises a version module arranged forexchanging in the IP communications network object oriented programmingversion information.

For example, when processing software for signalling messages in one ormore entities is updated, within the chain of entities differentversions of, for example, the set of JAVA Object classes may exist. Byexchanging such version information, processing errors due to differentsoftware versions are effectively avoided.

In a further object there is provided an IP communications system, suchas an IMS communications system, comprising at least two entitiesarranged for applying object oriented processing of signalling messages.The IP communications network is characterized in that the at least twoentities of the IP communications system each comprise a signallingmodule arranged for exchanging in the IP communications systemsignalling messages comprising object oriented based data items, inaccordance with the improved method disclosed above.

The improved method, entity and IP communications system disclosed abovebenefit form a greatly reduced signalling transmission in the IPcommunications network. This may lead to cost saving in the networkinfrastructure. In addition, the time and resource consuming parsing inentities of the IP communications network, such as servers, nodes,gateways, and the like is greatly alleviated which may lead to anincrease in the communication capacity of the entity, because theprocessing power and memory usage which is at present occupied by theparsing process may, to a certain extent, be used for communicationpurposes, such as handling calls. Call establishment duration will beshortened which will be positively perceived by the users of thenetwork.

The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of the inventionwill be best understood from the following description referring to theattached drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals denoteidentical parts or parts performing an identical or comparable functionor operation.

Although the examples presented relate to an IMS communications networkand system, using SIP signalling and JAVA object classes, the abovedisclosed improved method, entity and IP communications network andsystem are not to be construed as limited to IMS, SIP or JAVA services.To the contrary, the invention may be applied in any IP communicationsnetwork applying text based signalling messages and object orientedprocessing of signalling messages applying object oriented data items,such as C++, .Net, Python, Perl and Ruby based object oriented dataitems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of handling SIP text based signallingmessages exchanged between entities in an IMS communications network.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an example of handling signalling messagesbetween entities in an IMS communications network according to anexample of the improved method.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of message transfers between entities in anIMS network.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of an entity for use in an IP communicationsnetwork, applying the improved method of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of handling text based Session InitiationProtocol, SIP, signalling messages between entities 2, 3 forming asignalling chain in an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, IMS,communications network 1. The term entity as used in the presentdescription and claims refers to any network communication devicearranged for processing signalling messages, such as servers, nodes,gateways, proxies, and the like.

A SIP proxy #1 entity 2 receives text based SIP signalling messages 9 ata SIP decompressor & parser 8. The SIP proxy #1 entity 2 can be anyentity operative in an IP communications network, for example aServing-Call Session Control Function, S-CSCF, a Proxy-Call SessionControl Function, P-CSCF, an Application Server, AS, anInterrogating-Call Session Control Function, I-CSCF, a Home SubscriberServer, HSS, and others. Note that in the latter case, instead of theSIP signalling messages 9, signalling messages according to the Diameterprotocol are received.

The incoming text based SIP messages 9 may be raw text based messages orcompressed using available compression techniques, for example losslessor even lossy data compression technology. The incoming text based SIPmessages 9 are processed by the SIP decompressor & parser 8. The SIPdecompressor & parser 8 converts the text based SIP messages 9 to JAVAobject classes 6. The JAVA object classes 6 are processed by the SIPproxy #1 entity 2 using a JAVA service 4.

SIP signalling messages to be transmitted by the SIP proxy #1 areprovided by the JAVA service 4 and comprise JAVA object classes 7. TheSIP proxy #1 entity 2 prepares text based SIP signalling messages 11,using a SIP compressor & inverse parser 10 for converting the JAVAobject classes 6 back to text based messages 11. The text based SIPmessages 11 may comprise identical content compared to the incoming SIPmessages 9 or a non-identical content, modified by the JAVA service 4 ofthe SIP proxy #1 entity 2.

A SIP proxy #2 entity 3 receives text based SIP messages 11 sent fromthe SIP proxy #1 entity 2 at a SIP decompressor & parser 12. Again,received text based SIP messages 11 are decompressed & parsed by the SIPdecompressor & parser 12 for converting these signalling messages toJAVA object classes 15, such that the SIP proxy #2 entity 3 is able toprocess the messages internally using a JAVA service 5. Again, beforethe messages are sent or forwarded to a next entity in the IMS network1, JAVA object classes 16 are converted to text based signallingmessages 14, using a SIP compressor & inverse parser 13. As will beappreciated, the SIP proxy #2 entity 3 may be any entity operative in anIP communications network as disclosed above with respect to SIP proxy#1 entity 2.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an example of handling signalling messagesbetween entities 21, 23, 29 chained in an IMS network 20 according to anexample of the improved method of the present invention. Here, a callingparty A or User Equipment, UE, 43 sends a text based SIP message 27 to aSIP proxy #1 entity 21 via a decompressor & parser P 26. The SIP message27 may comprise a SIP Invite request message, SIP Register message orany other type of SIP message known in the art. More generally, in IPcommunication networks the message 27 does not necessarily need tocomprise a SIP message, it may consist of any type of text basedsignalling message.

Again, the SIP proxy #1 entity 21 may be any entity operative in an IPcommunications network as disclosed above with respect to SIP proxy #1entity 2 (FIG. 1). In the particular example SIP proxy #1 entity 21 is aP-CSCF server in the IMS communications network 20 for supporting VoIP,for example.

The decompressor & parser 26 converts SIP text based signalling messages27, or any other type of text based message, to JAVA object classes 24.In this example, the SIP proxy #1 entity 21 is arranged to apply objectoriented processing of signalling messages using a JAVA service 22.

After the JAVA service 22 has internally processed the JAVA objectclasses 24 of a received signalling message and, for example, as resulthereof has to transmit a signalling message to a next entity, i.e. SIPproxy #2 entity 29, in the chain, the SIP proxy #1 entity 21 is arrangedto forward the processed JAVA object class 25 directly to the SIP proxy#2 entity 29. That is no inverse parsing and, if applicable, datacompression are applied to the JAVA object classes 25 provided by theJAVA service 22 before transmission thereof to SIP proxy #2 entity 29.Accordingly, SIP signalling messages are exchanged between the SIP Proxy#1 entity 21 and the SIP Proxy #2 entity 29 comprising object orientedbased data items.

The SIP proxy #2 entity 29 may be any entity operative in an IPcommunications network as disclosed above with respect to SIP proxy #1entity 2 (FIG. 1). In the particular example SIP proxy #1 entity 21 isan S-CSCF server and/or I-CSCF server in the IMS communications network20.

The next entity in the IMS network 20, i.e. the SIP proxy #2 entity 29,is arranged to process received signalling messages 40 using a JAVAservice 28. In this case, the exchanged JAVA object classes 25 do notneed to be decompressed & parsed at the SIP proxy #2 entity 29. Thus, inaccordance with the improved method, signalling messages comprisingobject oriented based data items, for example JAVA object classes 25,are exchanged between entities of an IP communications network, forexample SIP proxy #1 entity 21 and SIP proxy #2 entity 29.

In this particular example, the JAVA object classes 25 provided by theJAVA service 22 are converted to serialised JAVA object classes 31 usinga transmission module S 30 of the SIP proxy #1 entity 21. Serialisationis the process of converting a data structure or object, in this case anobject oriented data item, into a sequence of bits. This sequence ofbits allows, among others, for conveniently transporting the datastructure or object to another entity in a network, for example SIPproxy #2 entity 29. The receiving SIP proxy #2 entity 29 is arranged todeserialize the received JAVA object classes 31 using a transmissionmodule S 32 for processing of JAVA object classes 40 by the JAVA service28.

The utilization of resources of the SIP proxy #1 entity 21 and the SIPproxy #2 entity 29 is considerably less forserialisation/deserialization of JAVA object classes compared tocompression/decompression and parsing of text based signalling messages.Therefor the load on these entities and the processing times as a wholeare considerably reduced. Another advantage of the improved method isthat eavesdropping on signalling messages 31 exchanged between theentities 21, 29 is more difficult, since these message are no longertext based messages.

The SIP proxy #2 entity 29 processes de-serialised JAVA object classes40 using the JAVA service 28. For sending JAVA object classes 41 to anext entity in the chain of the IMS network 20, that is SIP proxy #3entity 23, the JAVA object classes 41 are again serialised intoserialised JAVA object classes 34 using a transmission module S 33.

The SIP proxy #3 entity 23 receives the serialised JAVA object classes34 and processes same in a like manner as SIP proxy #1 entity 21, forexample, using a transmission module S 35 and JAVA service 42.

The SIP proxy #3 entity 23 may be any entity operative in an IPcommunications network as disclosed above with respect to SIP proxy #1entity 2 (FIG. 1). In the particular example SIP proxy #3 entity 23 is aP-CSCF server in the IMS communications network 20.

Calling party B or UE 44 is not arranged to apply object orientedprocessing of received signalling messages 37. Therefore, the SIP proxy#3 entity 23 is arranged to compress, if applicable, and inverse parseJAVA object classes 38 for transmission to UE 44, using a compressor &inverse parser I 36. Text based SIP signalling messages 37 are then sentto the calling party B 44 as disclosed above with respect to FIG. 1.

It will be appreciated that in setting up communication sessions betweenthe UE 43, 44 and during such sessions, signalling messages have to beexchanged in both ways between the entities 21, 23, 29 and the UE 43,44. To this end, each entity 21, 23, 29 comprises transmission modules Sproviding both serialising and de-serialising of JAVA object classesback and forth. SIP proxy #1 entity 21 may likewise comprise acompressor & inverse parser I 36, disclosed with respect to SIP proxy #3entity 23 for transmitting text based signalling messages to UE 43. SIPproxy #3 entity 23 may comprise a decompressor & parser P 26, disclosedwith respect to SIP proxy #1 entity 21 for receiving text basedsignalling messages from UE 44. The decompressor & parser 26 andcompressor & inverse parser may be combined in a single unit or module.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of message transfers between entities in anIMS network 50 according to the improved method. Here, the UE 43initiates, for example, a communication session by sending a SIP Invite59 message to its associated P-CSCF 51. To discover its associatedP-CSCF 51, the UE 43 first applies P-CSCF discovery using, for example,any form of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, DHCP, such as DCHPv6,or by requesting the P-CSCF address as part of PDPc establishmentprocess. The UE 43 receives the P-CSCF 51 address in the form of aUniform Resource Identifier, URI, plus URI parameters.

These URI parameters may comprise a parameter indicating whether anentity, for example the P-CSCF 51, is arranged for exchanging objectoriented based data items. The parameter may also be utilized forversion information, for example version information of the objectoriented programming version. Although this example is directed to SIPInvite 59 messages other type of messages may be used utilizing the sameprinciple.

Whenever the P-CSCF 41 forwards the SIP invite 59 message to a S-CSCF52, it uses a service route, which the S-CSCF 52 had previously returnedtowards the P-CSCF 41. Such a service route comprises the S-CSCF 52address as well as URI parameters. Again, these URI parameters maycomprise a parameter indicating whether the S-CSCF 52 is arranged forexchanging object oriented based data items, for example serializedobject oriented based data items.

The SIP Invite 59 message is then forwarded from the S-CSCF 52 to aSIP-AS 53 and back. Here, the S-CSCF 52 may add a parameter 60 to theSIP Invite 59 message indicating that the S-CSCF 52 is arranged forexchanging object oriented based data items. The SIP Invite 59 messagesent from the SIP-AS 53 to the S-CSCF 52 may already comprise objectoriented based data items, that is, if the SIP-AS 53 is also arrangedfor exchanging object oriented based data items. A SIP Response message61, sent from the SIP-AS 53 to the S-CSCF 52 may then comprise adesignation string 62 indicating that the SIP Response message 61comprises object oriented based data items.

The S-CSCF 52, then, forwards the SIP Invite 59 message to an I-CSCF 54,which acts as a main inbound proxy for a domain name of the called UE44. The I-CSCF 54 queries a Home Subscriber Server, HSS, 55 for thelocation of the called UE 44. The I-CSCF 54 then forwards the SIP Invite59 message to the S-CSCF 56 associated with the called UE 44.

When the I-CSCF 54 intends to forward a SIP Invite 59 message to theS-CSCF 56 it either determines the S-CSCF 56 address from internalconfiguration or asks/receives 63/64 the S-CSCF 56 address at/from theHSS 55. In case of internal configuration, the internally configuredS-CSCF 56 address may comprise a parameter 60 indicating whether theS-CSCF 56 is arranged for exchanging object oriented based data items.In case of receiving the S-CSCF 56 address from the HSS 55, the HSSprovides the S-CSCF 56 address as well as the parameter.

The parameter 60 may comprises at least one of a first port number forexchanging signalling messages comprising object oriented based dataitems and a second port number for exchanging signalling messages notcomprising object oriented based data items.

A similar reasoning, as explained above, is applied for messagesexchanged between the SIP-AS 57, P-CSCF 58 and the called UE 44.Basically, the address of the next entity in the network to which amessage is to be forward may be obtained in three ways. First, theaddress of the next entity was already provided by the next entity inprevious exchange of messages. Second, the address of the next entity isinternally configured and third, the address of the next entity isreceived during registration of a user.

The method according to the invention may also be applicable for non SIPmessaging, for example Diameter messages. Diameter is used during acommunication session establishment, between the I-CSCF 54 and the HSS55 and, if the called UE-B 44 is currently not registered in the S-CSCF56, between the S-CSCF 56 and the HSS 55.

Whenever an entity in an IMS network 50 receives a message, it needs todetermine whether the message is exchanged comprises a regular SIP textbased message or an object oriented based data items. Hereto, one of thefollowing methods, or a combination thereof, may be applied.

First, a designated application identifier may be used, which identifierindicates to the receiving entity whether the message exchangescomprises a regular SIP text based message or an object oriented baseddata item. Second, en entity in the IMS network may utilize two portnumbers for exchanging messages, one port number for messages comprisingregular text based messages and the other port number for messagescomprising object oriented based data items.

FIG. 4 schematically shows an entity 71 for use in an IP communicationsnetwork and arranged for exchanging signalling messages comprisingobject oriented based data items. The entity 71 represents anycommunication device arranged for processing signalling messages in anIP communications system, such as a server, node, gateway, proxy, andthe like.

The entity 71 comprises an input unit 72 having an input port and anoutput unit 75 having an output port for receiving and sendingsignalling messages in an IP communications network. The input andoutput units 72, 75 connect to a transmission module 73. Thetransmission module 73 connects to a signalling module 76 which isarranged exchanging signalling messages comprising object oriented baseddata items. The signalling module 76 connects to a processing unit 79,amongst others arranged for applying object oriented processing ofsignalling messages, such as a JAVA service for processing SIPsignalling messages applying JAVA object classes.

The transmission module 73 is arranged for serialising andde-serialising of signalling messages comprising object oriented baseddata items, as explained above in connection with FIG. 2. If noserialising is applied, the input and output units 72, 75 may connectdirectly to the signalling module 76.

A memory 78 and version module 77 connect to the processing unit 79,such to ensure that signalling messages are processed in accordance withthe appropriate version of JAVA software, for example.

The signalling module 76 may further be arranged for receiving aninterpreting parameters indicating whether a neighbouring entity in achain of entities is arranged for exchanging signalling messagescomprising object oriented based data items. For exchanging text basedsignalling messages, the entity 71 may comprise a decompressor & parser26 and a compressor and inverse parser 36 disclosed above in connectionwith FIG. 2. Separate input and output ports may be provided for theexchange of text based signalling messages.

In such a case the parameter comprises at least one of a first portnumber for exchanging signalling messages comprising object orientedbased data items and a second port number for exchanging signallingmessages not comprising object oriented based data items, such as textbased signalling messages.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that thefunctionality disclosed in relation to the improved method, entity andIP communications system may be applied in special hardware, software,or a combination thereof.

The invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but can bepractice with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of exchanging signaling messagesin an Internet Protocol (IP) communications network, the IPcommunications network comprising a chain of at least two entitiesconfigured to process object oriented signaling messages, the methodcomprising: at a first network entity in the chain: receiving asignaling message, wherein the signaling message comprises one of atext-based signaling message and an object-oriented based signalingmessage comprising serialized object classes of an object orientedprogramming language; responsive to the signaling message being atext-based signaling message, converting the signaling message to theobject-oriented based signaling message; responsive to the signalingmessage being an object-oriented based signaling message, processing thesignaling message without parsing the signaling message; andtransmitting the object-oriented based signaling message from the firstnetwork entity in the chain to a second network entity in the chaincausing the second network entity to process the object-oriented basedsignaling message without parsing the object-oriented based signalingmessage.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the object classes of theobject oriented programming language are JAVA object classes.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising, prior to transmitting theobject-oriented based signaling message to the second entity in thechain, serializing the object classes of the object-oriented basedsignaling message.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the object-orientedbased signaling message sent to the second network entity comprises adesignation string indicating that the object-oriented based signalingmessage comprises the serialized object classes of the object orientedprogramming language.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein processing thesignaling message without parsing the signaling message comprises:de-serializing the received serialized object classes of the objectoriented programming language; and applying object oriented processingof to the de-serialized object classes of the object orientedprogramming language.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingexchanging, with the second network entity prior to receiving the firstsignaling message, a parameter indicating whether one or both of thefirst and second network entities are configured to exchange objectclasses of an object oriented programming language.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising exchanging a parameter with the secondnetwork entity indicating whether one or both of the first and secondnetwork entities are configured to exchange object classes of an objectoriented programming language.
 8. The method of claim 6: wherein thefirst and second network entities of the chain operate in an IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS) and exchange Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) signaling messages; and wherein the parameter is exchanged in atleast one of a SIP Register, a SIP Invite, and a SIP Response signalingmessage.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the parameter comprises atleast one of: a first port number for exchanging signaling messagescomprising the object classes of the object oriented programminglanguage; and a second port number for exchanging signaling messages notcomprising the object classes of the object oriented programminglanguage.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and secondnetwork entities of the chain operate in an IP communications networksupporting Voice over IP (VoIP) communications.
 11. A network entitycomprising: one or more processing circuits operable as a signalingcircuit and configured to: receive a signaling message, wherein thesignaling message comprises one of a text-based signaling message and anobject-oriented based signaling message comprising serialized objectclasses of an object oriented programming language; responsive to thesignaling message being a text-based signaling message, convert thesignaling message to an object-oriented based signaling message;responsive to the signaling message being an object-oriented basedsignaling message, process the signaling message without parsing thesignaling message; and transmit the object-oriented based signalingmessage from the first network entity in the chain to a second networkentity in the chain causing the second network entity to process theobject-oriented based signaling message without parsing theobject-oriented based signaling message.
 12. The entity of claim 11,wherein the object classes of the object oriented programming languageare JAVA object classes.
 13. The entity of claim 11: wherein the one ormore processing circuits comprise a transmission circuit configured to:serialize the object classes of the object oriented programming languagefor transmission to the second network entity; and responsive to thesignaling message being the object-oriented based signaling message,de-serialize the serialized object classes of the object orientedprogramming language received at the first network entity.
 14. Theentity according to claim 11, wherein the one or more processingcircuits are further configured to exchange object oriented programmingversion information in the IP communications network.
 15. An InternetProtocol (IP) communications system comprising: at least first andsecond network entities configured to: communicate signaling messageswith each other, wherein each signaling message comprises one of atext-based signaling message and an object-oriented based signalingmessage comprising serialized object classes of an object orientedprogramming language; for each signaling message that is a text-basedsignaling message, convert the signaling message to an object-orientedbased signaling message; for each signaling message that is anobject-oriented based signaling message, process the signaling messagewithout parsing the signaling message; and transmit the object-orientedbased signaling message from the first network entity in the chain to asecond network entity in the chain causing the second network entity toprocess the object-oriented based signaling message without parsing theobject-oriented based signaling message.